Tag: Recipes

As we weren’t able to spend Christmas and New Years together, we rain-checked to celebrate last night. You know, nothing says celebration like a Tuesday night 🙂

Since he doesn’t eat turkey, we had to come up with something fitting for the occasion. Enter, risotto with scallops! My recipe is modified from this one from SkinnyTaste.

Now, I’ve only made risotto once before, and that was really just as an experiment to see if I could make it, and neither of us has made scallops! No pressure or anything. Thankfully, I have a wonderful seafood store that was able to give me tips on how to not botch the poor, beautiful scallops.

In a small pot, on low heat, warm the vegetable broth/water. I don’t love the taste of vegetable broth, so I cut the 4 C down to 2 and used water to thin out the flavours.

In a frying pan, on medium-low heat, melt the butter. Add the garlic and shallots. Cook for about 1 min to allow the flavours to come through. Add the rice, salt & pepper, and continue to stir. Basically, risotto is just a good shoulder workout – there’s a lot of stirring! Cook for about 2 mins (while stirring), until the rice starts to lighten (turn shiny/translucent).

Oh, the other thing that risotto is good for!? Here it is…add the wine now. At this point, you have an open bottle of wine, so poor yourself a class to drink while you keep on stirring 🙂

Keep stirring.

And stirring.

And stirring, until the wine is sucked into the rice. Then, ladle in your stock/water, little bits at a time…and keep on stirring, taking sips of wine as you go.

When you have about 2-3 more ladles of liquid left, add the parmesan and start the greens and scallops.

In a frying pan, heat the butter and garlic. Add the greens and cook until “done”.

Scallops
2 Tbsp Coconut Oil
Scallops

In a non-stick or cast iron frying pan (you can use a different pan, but you’ll want to lay down a bit of salt to keep the scallops from sticking), heat the pan over medium heat and add the coconut oil. When the pan is hot (not warm, hot), add the scallops and cook for 4-6 minutes on one side. Flip the scallops and cook another 1-2 minutes. Cooking time depends on how large/thick the scallops are.

Like this:

There’s a cafe here in Vancouver, Eternal Abundance, that is amazing! They have this Super Salad that I love and will buy on occasion; however, I can’t buy it every day so I’ve made a few attempts at recreating it on my own. I think I did a pretty good job with this one.

Salad:
Short grain brown rice (cooked as you see fit – I kept it simple with just water)
Kale-slaw mix from Whole Foods (Kale, carrots, red and green cabbage)
Red and Green Peppers
Avocado
Sprouts
*I would have also added cucumber and celery, but I kept them separate for an afternoon snack.
**Obviously add any other veggies you want!

Dressing:
Olive Oil
Apple Cider Vinegar
Orange Juice (I cut about 1/3 of an orange off and squeezed it)
Miso (about a table spoon??)
Garlic (1 clove, crushed)
Ginger (1 inch, crushed/chopped)
*Sorry, I have no idea how much of everything I put in, just work it around until it tastes right to you 🙂

I realized I needed to get some Christmas baking done so I started a bit of research to see what could be easily done gluten-free and I found these little gems (which I made a few changes to. The original recipe can be found here).

The last time I made biscotti it was with wheat flour and I couldn’t find my friend’s recipe so I was a little nervous.

Apparently being nervous baking is a good thing because these turned out mind-blowingly good (if I do say so myself)! Are you ready for this?

Gluten-Free Cranberry Almond Biscotti

3 C Almond Flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill because it’s all I can find, and the meal-like consistency was perfect for these)
Pinch Salt (I used a fine sea salt)
1/2 tsp Baking Soda

2 Eggs
1 Tbsp Vanilla (yes, a full tablespoon! So good!)
1/4 C Liquid Sweetener (I used some Agave because I have some I’m trying to use up, and I didn’t want to use my honey)

1/2 C Dried Cranberries (approximate measure…I just dumped some into the mix until it looked like a reasonable amount)
And the secret ingredient…

Melted white chocolate (Boom! Life changed! Thank you Carrie and Brooks for this secret) I used that much (less the pieces that ended up in my mouth…and the leftovers in the bowl after adding to the mixture).

Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 325
Melt the chocolate (you can use white, milk, dark, combination, go crazy, it’s chocolate and Christmas!)
Combine the Almond Flour, Salt, Baking Soda
Whisk the Eggs and Vanilla until fluffy (I used my hand blender’s whisk attachment; add the Agave and melted Chocolate and quickly whisk again to combine
Mix dry and wet
Add Cranberries
Transfer onto a Parchment-lined cookie sheet and form into a log (the mixture is quite sticky so I ran my hands under cold water to help form the log)

Bake for 30 minutes
Remove and let cool for 20 minutes
Slice and return to the oven for 15 minutes
Flip and return to the oven for a final 15 minutes

Sometimes I get so excited about healthy food that I get overwhelmed and end up ordering take-out…not tonight!

After a morning of sweaty fun (hiked up Grouse Grind then went to a flow yoga class), I was about to drag myself off to Whole Foods to stock-up for dinner when I realized I actually had everything I needed to try Cashew Alfredo on quinoa pasta (I love GoGo Quinoa) with broccoli! Woohoo!

Like this:

Sometimes (most of the time), I’m a bad grocery shopper. I love grocery shopping so much, I’ll actually “window shop” at the grocery store! Anyway, the other day I was on my way home from visiting my grandma and found myself at Whole Foods (aka my favourite store). It was actually time to stock up for the week, but I found myself unprepared, as in, I had no idea what I wanted to be eating for lunches this week, never mind breakfast and dinner! As I stared, bright-eyed, at the produce, I thought: “BEETS! Oooh, and KALE!” Ok, I had a path… “Oh, and goat feta!” Done!

*I learned how to strip kale from its icky (and wonderful, life-giving) stalk this weekend: hold the stem in one hand and the base of the green leaves with the other hand, pull the hand holding the green leaves away from the hand holding the stalk and voila! let there be stalk-less kale leaves!

Once my kale was stripped, I chopped it up and put it into a bowl. Instead of massaging each piece (like I’ve done for kale chips), I grabbed handfuls and squished it (like balling dough).

I roasted my beets (with their skins and stems) in a 450 degree oven, covered, for about 1 hour, rotating every 15 minutes or so or until I could poke them with a chopstick. After letting the beets cool, I peeled the skins off and chopped them up.

I made quinoa (with avocado, cucumber and Spike, wrapped in nori sheets) for dinner so it was an afterthought addition to the salad.

I mixed the kale and beets with a little lemon juice then added some quinoa, apple cider vinegar, and the goat feta in the morning; shake-shake-shake and yum!

Like this:

Recently, juicing has become uber popular! As much as I’d like a juicer, I know that realistically I don’t have the time to use it enough to justify the cost and space 😦 I’m extremely lucky that I live in a city that has cold pressed, fresh, organic juices readily available; however, they are expensive! So, I’ve put my $50 blender to use and created my own “juice”.

The first green smoothie came about because I had eaten too much meat over the previous days and was talking to my mum about feeling “blah” and uninterested in food. Our conversation turned to what I had in my fridge and the below Vegetable Drawer Juice came about.

So first up, an update, the day after I posted about the fitness photo shoot, it was canceled. I had to decide if I wanted to set one up myself or keep the deadline just ’cause or scrap it. I was toying with at least keeping the deadline, then my twitter feed was inundated with Kate Upton on the cover of Sports Illustrated and I decided I quite like my fit, yet curvy body! The silver lining is I remembered I love lifting weights and will try to do so at least twice a week 🙂 If the opportunity presents itself again, I might say yes, but for now, I’m happy with where I am.

I used honey and Nature’s Path Crispy Rice cereal (it’s gluten free) and I forgot to use my trusty protein powder. With that being said, they came out a little dry and crumbly. I threw them in the oven for a moment to soften up the peanut butter and honey…still a little crumbly. Will add a small amount of water next time, or less rice cereal and oats.

Flourless Banana Muffins
Adapted from this recipe. The original called for 2 bananas and 3 eggs and no “flour” of any kind, but I wanted a different texture so this is what I came up with:

Not gonna lie, I’m horrible at making dinners at home; well, here’s the way I see it: I work, then teach Monday-Friday so I’m not usually home until after 6pm anyway, then I try to make it to yoga most nights of the week, plus I’m single…so I eat at the Whole Foods salad bar A LOT! And I’m ok with that; however, I actually like to cook! And my recent discovery of Pinterest has only increased this love. Unfortunately, eating out has become a habit, so even when I have the time to make food, I don’t. So tonight I took it upon myself to make a quick, simple, one pan meal…SO GOOD (and easy)!

That’s right, all that came out of one pan!

Another quick story, when I was young, my mum would buy me a bag of shrimp meat, and I would eat at least half of it…before we got home! This happened for a few months. Needless to say, I overdosed and I hadn’t eaten shrimp since. Over Christmas this year, I was at my sister’s house and she made shrimp for dinner, and I was hungry, so I went for it…and liked it! Which is good, because the nutritional content of shrimp is amazing! And they’re pretty inexpensive, in the scheme of meats.

In a frying pan on medium heat, I melted some (a lot of) butter, threw in two cloves of chopped garlic, a sprinkle of chilli flakes, broccoli and cauliflower (my other new favourite ingredient). I added some water and covered until the broccoli and cauliflower started to become tender. Then I added some cooked shrimp (I was able to get them pre-cooked from Whole Foods) and rice noodles, a little more water, and covered again.

Once the noodles were looking done, I took the lid off to crisp everything up. And done!

Like this:

T’is the season to avoid brussel sprouts! Those nasty green balls always manage to make their way onto every plate on the table…

I am not (was not) a brussel sprout eater. Then I went to yoga teacher training and were food was provided to me and there wasn’t really much choice, but to eat them…or to miss a very large part of that night’s dinner. So I tried them. And, shockingly, I actually enjoyed them, and not just because I was starving!

I know my taste for them wasn’t just because I was hungry because I have since made them at home. The other night I made this beauty of a concoction:

Like this:

Since removing gluten from my kitchen many, many years ago, my Christmas Baking has suffered 😦 Until this year!

I found a recipe for sweet and spicy nuts and gave them a go; they’re good, but I think I’m going to switch back to my Mumma’s for the next batch:

1/2 tsp Salt1 1/2 tsp Cumin1/4 tsp Cayenne
1 Tbsp Sugar

3 Tbsp Oil
2 C Nuts (my mum uses Almonds, but I think Pecans lend themselves well to everything so a mix could be good too)
1/2 C Sugar

1. Combine first four ingredients and set aside
2. In a pot, caramelize the last three ingredients and keep them moving; remove from heat
3. Add the spice mixture into the warm
4. While still hot, empty onto two cookie sheets (parchment-lined) while spreading and separating
5. Allow to cool

I also found…are you ready for this? Gluten-free (and healthy) Ginger Cookies! Cue the gasps! They’re not quite the same, but they’ll do (as the half-eaten batch sitting in my kitchen will tell you).

You may have caught on that, even when I’m baking, I don’t like to follow recipes word for word, but I did with this one. The edges turned out fantastic; I just need to figure out how to make that happen all the way through the cookie…

Like this:

So apparently I bake when I’m bored! Having a quiet Saturday evening and was craving something sweat. After having a moment of weakness at Whole Foods the other night, I have some gluten-free “Oreos” in my cupboard, but I’d really rather eat something I’ve made. So last night I cracked open Oat and Raisin recipe again and tonight I went for Peanut Butter…

I had made a version of three ingredient peanut butter cookies in the past, but apparently didn’t post the recipe, so I found the following, basic recipe:

Like this:

I had the TV on the Food Network before running off to my next engagement today and Recipe to Riches happened to be on and I heard the words “quinoa bites” so I Googled it and found tons of recipes! So tonight I made these little gems:

I used this recipe as my guide, but, as you might have noticed, I’m not very good at following recipes; so below is a basic guide for what I did.

Combine everything except the Quinoa and Egg in a large mixing bowel
Add the Quinoa and mix
Poor beaten Egg over the mixture
Scoop into muffin cups (I use silicone ones)
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes (until lightly browned)
Pull out of the oven and cool on a cooling rack
Enjoy!

Last night I had a shocking craving for my godmother’s blueberry muffins my mum used to whip up for me, but since going gluten-free I haven’t been very pleased with the muffin selection out there…and then this recipe happened…and now everything has changed!

Preheat oven to 375 and line a muffin tin
Mix Eggs to Yogurt until smooth, add Baking Mix and beat until batter forms, fold in Blueberries
Scoop into tins and bake for 20-25 mins, until golden and a toothpick comes out clean
Cool on a wire cooling rack

I’m nervous about how they’ll be tomorrow, but I can’t eat anymore right now because it’s already past my bedtime…well, maybe just one more… 🙂 Enjoy!!

Melt Earth Balance and Sugar
Mix in Egg White, Vanilla, Oats, Ground Flax, Almond Flour, Cinnamon and Protein Powder
Chill in fridge or freezer (this is IMPORTANT)
Once chilled, place balls onto parchment-covered cookie sheet (I didn’t press them down at first, but noticed they were browning before they should be so pressed them down a bit about 5 minutes in)
Bake for 15-25 minutes at 350 degrees, rotating about half-way through
Remove and allow to cool, as hard as this will be to do!

My typical breakfast has been home-made granola and plain greek yogurt for the past…MANY years. So in a quest to switch it up a little, I found this beauty, which I altered slightly in an attempt to make a half batch and not use applesauce (mine had been sitting in my cupboards for longer than I care to remember).

My wheat-weakness is Cinnamon Buns so this recipe has been on my “to-try” list for a while now and I finally got around to it…and…although good, they won’t be replacing the real deal any time soon! But they ARE good.

I followed this recipe pretty closely so I’m not going to write it out; however, the change I’d suggest is to cut down on the sugar!! I don’t think I’ll use any Agave next time as the dates are sweat enough.

Potato Salad

I always forget how much I LOVE red potatoes! Potatoes aren’t a staple in my diet, but I definitely have a soft spot for them and summer, although it’s nearing an end, just screams red potatoes!

Like this:

I’ve been running around, a lot, recently and tonight, instead of going to a yoga class (as I had hoped to), I made the decision to spend some time at home; making some food I keep meaning to make — zucchini pasta with home made pesto followed up with a blueberry-strawberry crisp 🙂 I feel like I made a good decision!

Pesto
1 Large Garlic Clove
3 Tbsp Shaved Parmesan
1 Bunch Basil — I used one of the packages from Safeway
3 Tbsp Toasted Walnuts —I wanted to use the traditional Pine Nuts, but my local Safeway didn’t have any and I didn’t want to go to another store
5 Tbsp Olive Oil

Place Garlic, Parmesan, Basil, Toasted Walnuts into food processor and let it run
Scrap down the edges
Drizzle Olive Oil into the bowl while the food processor is running
**Adapted from the Cuisinart Food Processor Guide

Zucchini Pasta
Peel skin
Using a peeler, peel one area until you get close to the seeds, then work your way onto the next side
Place “pasta” into lightly oiled frying pan and soften
Add 1 Tbsp of Pesto and warm —stir a few times
**I wouldn’t suggest this as a full meal, but definitely an amazing side dish for some white fish or something

Pour Berries into a baking dish —I use a 4×4 CorningWare one for these proportions
Sprinkle and stir in Cornstarch
Sprinkle with Pumpkin Pie Spice
Melt Earth Balance and Brown Sugar
Stir in Cinnamon and Oats
Pour Oat mixture over Berries
Cover with tinfoil and bake for approximately 15 minutes at 350
Remove tinfoil and bake until golden —approximately 10 more minutes

Whisk all ingredients and scoop into muffin cups. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes – until tops are golden.
You can try with the streusel – I combined sugar, Earth Balance, almond flour and cinnamon.
As with the Pumpkin Loaf, you can sub the egg to make these dairy-free as well as grain- and nut-free!
These came out eggier than the Pumpkin Loaf so I’m thinking less peach and/or more flax and/or some oat/almond flour next time.